Documents of value within the meaning of the present invention are particularly understood to mean documents of value with a predetermined nominal value, thus in particular banknotes, but also shares, postage stamps and the like. The invention is also applicable to other documents of value without a nominal value, such as checks, credit cards, ID cards, etc. and is suited in particular for the classification and quantity determination of such documents of value with no nominal value. In the following, the invention is described by way of example with reference to the particular problems encountered in banknote processing.